They are dusting away the cobwebs at Stormont today, as the Northern Ireland assembly returns to work for the first time since it was suspended in October 2002. Until now the government in Westminster has tolerated the assembly's failure to function, on the grounds that paralysis is better than conflict. The freezing of devolution has not reversed the IRA's move away from violence and criminality, even if it has excused the province's political parties from the task of governing the communities they claim to represent. Now the patience of the Northern Ireland secretary, Peter Hain, has run out and he is bringing the assembly back today in a bid to force the pace.

At first, under legislation passed last month, the assembly will do little more than sit. Mr Hain will still govern Northern Ireland, though he promises to listen to Stormont. But his aim is to see a power-sharing executive elected by the end of the summer. Otherwise, he warns, the assembly will be scrapped on November 24 and payments to members will be withdrawn. The aim is to make political failure personally painful. Forcing the imperative in another way, he has also set out changes to the way Northern Ireland is run, planning big new councils, water charges and the end of the 11-plus exam. His message is clear: if Northern Irish voters object to his schemes, they should make their politicians get together to run things instead.

There are grounds for hoping this gamble might work. The killing last month of the British informer Denis Donaldson showed that not all nationalists have abandoned violence, but the latest Independent Monitoring Commission report on paramilitary activity was extremely encouraging. "It is absolutely clear that the Provisional IRA leadership has committed itself to a peaceful path," it says. The same is not true of the two loyalist criminal groups, the UDA and the UVF. But the objects in the way of devolution are now political, principally the attitude of the DUP leader, Ian Paisley. This too may be changing: the DUP has cooperated in reviving the assembly and attended the recent British-Irish conference, a sign it is prepared to make aspects of the Good Friday agreement work. There are also hopes the approaching marching season may be more peaceful. That is a long way from seeing Dr Paisley and Gerry Adams sit together in government. But by bringing the assembly back Mr Hain has turned what once seemed impossible into a realistic expectation. It is now up to Northern Ireland's politicians to deliver what they all say they want, by taking charge of their own future.